Tokyo Tower

We walked through Minato-ku, Tokyo, to Tokyo Tower, where we went to the 150 and 250 meter observation decks (nearly 500 and 820 feet). The tower is supposed to be modeled after Paris’ Eiffel Tower, but is a bit taller and lighter. The photo above was shot from the 150 meter deck, and shows Zojoji Temple surrounded by the rest of the city. The 150 m deck was quite large with plenty of room for everybody to take in the view, and included a small restaurant, gift shop, and even a small stage for a night club. The 250 m deck was much smaller with room for little more than the 20 or so people allowed up at a time.

The “Mystery Ball” is an attraction at the tower. During some maintenance to an antenna at about 330 m high during the summer of 2012 a baseball was found. It had been their since the towers completion, more than 50 years ago. Nobody knows how it got there, so that’s the mystery. While at Tokyo Tower we also got a taste of cosplay (short for “costume play”). I wasn’t surprised to see any cosplayers here, but I was surprised at how many there were (there were at least a half dozen additional people I noticed beyond who are in these photos).

At the base of the tower was also a small impromptu car show. From a distance I was very excited — it looked like some fantastic airbrush work to paint these cars. Up close, however, it was obvious these were all basically just stickers, most so up-sized that they were horribly pixelated. From a distance they looked great but up close were very imperfect.